Oh, why are we so sad?
Are we feeling hurt by their evil eyes and all those empty words?
We are thirsty for payback?
Twelve years. That's how long it took for Andromeda to understand why people were trembling in respect and fear every time she said her name and introduced herself. Why nobody refused anything her parents or sisters wanted.
Because she was a Black.
Andromeda was proud to be a Black. She loved her sisters and her parents.
But as time passed, she could see how poisonous their presence around her was. Her mother smiled coldly at her, barely had time for her – not that she had to work. Druella just didn't like staying around her daughters and especially, around Andromeda.
Druella adored Bellatrix – Bella was her favourite one from three of them. Their mother thought that her eldest daughter was be the one best suited to represent the nobleness of the family, so she treated her like a precious diamond – she never let her out of her sight, showered her in attention, and helped her in her life so she wouldn't make the wrong choice.
Cissy was still really young, so Druella didn't really pay attention to anything she did. And plus, Narcissa was Daddy's little princess. Cygnus loved her and gave her whatever she wanted when she stared at him, tearful and begging for – at first – a new doll or a toy, and later – a new dress, a new necklace or no matter what else. Even attention, when he wasn't at work. He was always there for Narcissa.
Andromeda was loved, perhaps. She had many friends at school that found her funny and nice. Her father bought her expensive things and possibly liked her too. Her mother tried to teach her how to act too and didn't want her to get hurt.
Nobody had ever called her sisters funny or nice. But she wasn't prettier than Cissy, nor was she as memorable a person as Bella was, or at least, not for her parents. So no matter what she did, it never mattered.
As the years went by, she started to fill with anger.
Our beloved kin never learned to fit in
Now I pay for my name, live my life in sin
How much less can I ask from you people?
Dromeda looked in disgust at her mother's proud smile when she introduced her to the Rosier by from school.
"Nice to meet you," she murmured. Druella tightened the grip around her arm and hissed in her ear.
"You sound like a stupid schoolgirl! Show him the house, dance with him, just do anything for once, you useless girl."
Andromeda knew that she would never marry Rosier, no matter what. And not only because she loved Ted so much. It was because she wasn't like anybody of her family. It wasn't in her nature to marry a boy she didn't know – the fact that they had shared a classroom for a couple of years didn't change anything – a man she didn't like. Actually, she was pretty sure that under his long dress robes, on his left hand, she would be able to see a Dark Mark.
She looked around. They were on Bellatrix' engagement party. Dromeda couldn't stand those things their family did. Any other family would make a party like that just to show how happy they were for their daughter. No, a normal family wouldn't make a party including around a hundred guests. A normal family would prefer keep such an important moment for themselves.
Not that her family had ever fit in the 'normal family' category.
The Blacks had organized the party to brag with their manor, with their richness and with their daughter as if she was new, beautiful furniture they wanted to show their friends – and also about fifty other people they barely even knew. The girl tried to hold back her hysterical laughter as she realized how absurd the whole thing actually was.
"Let me go, Mother," Andromeda hissed. Druella's eyes widened.
"Don't you dare speak like that to me!" Then she did something her daughter really hadn't expected – she burst into tears.
"I-I did everything!" she cried dramatically. "Everything t-to make you a real young woman in our society… To make you a real Black…."
But Andromeda wasn't sure she really wanted this anymore. In fact, she was sure that she didn't.
"If I ever become a real Black, Mother, I'll throw myself off a cliff. Good night," she said unceremoniously and left the hall.
You dig another hole in the one you're standing in
Nothing is enough for Generation Greed
Angels die for the cause, long live the faction
"I want that dress," Narcissa said; her voice high and clear as always as she pointed at the dark green dress before them. Their mother scowled as she stared at the price of it. Even the Blacks had limits.
"I'm sure you'll be fine with this one too…"
"No!" Andromeda trembled as her sister's voice echoed in the store for formal dress robes. "I want this one and no other!"
"Of course you can have it, Ciss." Cygnus smiled, hugging his daughter and just a minute later, they had bought the dress. Druella glared at him, but he just shrugged and went to pay. Narcissa looked like the happiest girl on earth.
Andromeda frowned. There were times when Cissy was a really polite young girl. Now she was fourteen and her favorite words already were "I want". She had pretty much got the Bellatrix decease, Andromeda thought, smiling darkly. But of course, that was the way the things in their family worked. You should get what you want, no matter what happens. No matter who'll suffer if you get the thing in question. If you want it, you must have it. Because that's just how it happens with the pure-bloods. Or at least, with the Blacks.
Andromeda felt just a little sad. Her younger sister was the only kind of agreeable person in that house… in the times before she found out that she could get anything she wanted if she raised her voice enough or cried long enough.
"Dromeda, do you want anything too?" Cygnus asked, still smiling.
Without even looking at the dresses, Andromeda shook her head.
She wasn't going to be like them. Greed just wasn't her thing. And if just once she did that – if just once she cried over a dress or anything else until she got it – she would probably loose herself in it. Just like her sister.
"No."
You're in a battle you're not supposed to win
Still you run to your death, face it with a grin
Run home, kids, while you still have homes
"STOP!" Dromeda shouted in the dark alley she found her sister in, torturing a young woman – probably for information.
Andromeda was the only one after her; the others from the Order were trying to find everyone else. They assumed that it would be easier for her to get things done with Bellatrix – she was her sister and she knew her the best after all.
Pity she had agreed.
"And why would I?" Bellatrix asked with a grin and a cruel glint in her eyes. "Are you too fragile to watch this, Andy?" her sister's voice was mocking and pitiless. "You're too fragile to witness someone being tortured? Then I guess you'll enjoy this more. Avada Kedavra!"
The woman fell on the ground before Andromeda could do anything.
She didn't have any evidence; none at all. No matter what she was thought of to say to the Ministry of Magic, she knew that they couldn't do anything anymore. Voldemort was on top of his power; nobody had seen it coming, nobody had ever imagined that such a thing would happen.
And Andromeda knew that no matter how much she hated Bellatrix, right now, she would never have the heart to do anything to her. But still, she took out her wand and pointed it at her sister's throat.
Bellatrix laughed mockingly.
"Go on," she grinned. "Go on, kill me."
Andromeda's hand was shaking with anger, her lips trembled, as if to pronounce the Unforgivable curse, but she didn't.
"But you never will, will you, Andy?" Bellatrix asked in a voice like velvet. "You don't have the guts to kill your own sister, do you? Someone else from your stupid Order – probably, but not you… You're too weak, aren't you?" And without another word, she Apparated.
Andromeda sat on the ground, cupping her face with her hands.
She was supposed to win this battle, she knew that. They were the good ones.
But it had never been so hard before.
Write a book about us, the family infamous
Memorize every leaf, every word, every phrase
See your name on the last page, consumed by fire
Her hands slid on the Black family tree at Number 12, Grimmauld Place. The house was currently deserted and had he cold, unwelcoming feeling of a residence without its inhabitants, but - only Merlin knows why – she decided to come and see it for one last time – now that she was about to say 'goodbye' to it. Finally.
She could still see the place where her name was burned on it, between the names of her sisters. Ted and Dora's names weren't there too, of course – why would anybody mention anything about the disowned one?
It was strange, Andromeda thought. Everyone on it, whose name has been burned on that exact family tree, probably had more than enough reasons to be proud of themselves.
And everyone that had left on it probably had had a really hard time doing the same.
She stared at the names of Orion and Wallburga Black – her aunt and uncle – that were still on the family tree. How nice it must be, Andromeda thought sadly, to be married to your first cousin and that to seem normal to everyone. And how disgraceful to be married to someone that lacks pure wizard blood, but still loves you and you love him back.
It was still kind of funny, she realised, that she was the one her family still talked about with a bit of disgust and shame, as if she had done something so wrong that she didn't deserve to be mentioned at all. Unlike her family – her cousin Death Eater - his brother's name was burned too, so she could see only Regulus' – her sister that had killed probably hundreds of people, her other sister that spent her life in fear for her family, her mother that didn't bother even talking to anyone that hadn't pure blood. It was a wonder that their father was still there – he had to be disowned too; sometimes he even appeared to be so… human. And that was something pretty unnatural for their family.
Shaking her head, Andromeda turned her back on the family tree of the "Noble and Most Ancient House of Black". Yes, she was the one they didn't want to mention, as if they didn't know her and it would be better for everyone to forget that she existed. The relative that any other family would be proud of was a shame for this one.
But that's how it works with the Blacks, isn't it?
Author's Notes: Sorry for writing another one-shot based on a song, but I just couldn't resist. It fitted so well!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it.
The used songs are Wildfire, Wildfire II and Wildfire III by Sonata Arctica.